The Judy factor: Davis returns to Australian TV on ABC's Mystery Road

By Debi Enker

May 24, 2018 — 12.00am

The first striking thing about Mystery Road is the landscape: a vast night sky sparkling with stars, expanses of baked earth, bulbous boab trees, imposing mountain ranges and outcrops of red rock. In addition to being a crime story, a social study and a family drama, the six-part series is an ode to the East Kimberley region of WA, justifiably described by producer Greer Simpkin as "majestic", and beautifully rendered by director of photography Mark Wareham. It's the kind of epic setting beloved by cinema, especially westerns, and rarely seen on TV: ancient, monumental, remote, spectacular.

Directed by Rachel Perkins and shot over 10 weeks, largely in and around Kununurra where daytime temperatures ranged from high 30s to mid-40s, Mystery Road exudes a potent sense of place. It also adds a new chapter to the screen life of Indigenous police detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen), who appeared in Ivan Sen's films, Mystery Road (2013) and Goldstone (2016).

In terms of a timeline, the series, which is described by Simpkin as "outback noir", sits between the films. Jay is sent to the fictional town of Patterson to help the local police investigate the disappearance of two young men, football hero Marley Thompson (Aaron McGrath) and backpacker Reese (Connor Van Vuuren), who was working as a farm hand on a property owned by Tony Ballantyne (Colin Friels).

Sen's films establish Jay as a conflicted hero: "He's caught between two worlds," says producer David Jowsey. "The black community doesn't trust him because he's a cop; the white establishment doesn't really trust him because he's black." His dedication to his work has also had a damaging impact on his estranged wife, Mary (Tasma Walton), and daughter, Crystal (Madeleine Madden).

Inclined to being a loner, Jay is a strong, silent type. Something of a maverick, he's distrustful of his colleagues and not unduly bound by regulations. In Patterson, he finds himself working with the senior officer, Emma James (Judy Davis), who's also dedicated to her job, but markedly different in her approach: she's a by-the-book uniformed officer. She's also a local with deep roots in the community and, according to Davis, sees police work as a way of "making a contribution" to it.

Emma's job is such a defining force in her life that, over six hours, we never see her in anything but her uniform: "I loved that uniform, especially the belts, though it did get hot," says Davis with her throaty laugh. Although we learn that Emma was once married, her home remains unseen and, in early discussions with Perkins and the writers, Davis suggested that they nix the idea of Emma having a romantic interest. "I didn't want a boyfriend," says Davis. "I don't think she needs that." Everything about Emma suggests that she is a woman who lives for her work. Of the relationship that develops between her and Jay, Jowsey says, "There's a buddy movie going on, but it's fraught: there's friction between them."

A multi-award winning actress, Davis counts Emma as the first policewoman in her extensive repertoire. She says that what initially attracted her to her first Australian TV role since Water Under the Bridge (1980) was the prospect of working with Pedersen and Perkins. "I admire Aaron enormously," she says. "I was so excited about working with him. And Rachel is a spectacular person who's done some fantastic work: Redfern Now is a landmark. So there was that and then the Kimberley made it even better, a part of the world I'd never been to and always wanted to go. The script is always important, but the initial impulse was a need to work with those people."

Davis signed on without knowing who the other cast members were and says the discovery was "a wonderful plus". Fleshing out the Patterson community are Deborah Mailman, radiating strength and fury as the devout mother of the missing Marley; Wayne Blair as a convicted rapist and a character he describes as being "a bit like Boo Radley"; Ernie Dingo as a town powerbroker; Anthony Hayes as a policeman of dubious ethics; Tasia Zalar as a single mother and girlfriend of the missing backpacker; and John Waters as a lawyer.

Judy Davis as Emma James.Credit:ABC

As they're introduced, the secrets and lies of the past also emerge. And as Jay and Emma pursue their investigations, his life becomes more complicated with the unexpected arrival of his spirited daughter. "Crystal is very fiery, very fierce," explains Madden. "She rocks up in need of a place to stay and takes him by surprise. They're father and daughter, but they're like two adults who are complete strangers. They don't really have anything in common at first and they butt heads all the time." Madden found the initially volatile relationship, with its frequent confrontations, wasn't difficult to play as she'd known Pedersen since she was a child when he used to babysit her and her siblings.

In terms of performance levels on the set, Jowsey reckons "The Judy Factor" kicked in and that Davis's participation "did raise the bar. All the actors are fantastic, but everyone feels a little bit 'Oh my God, Judy Davis is on set'. She's one of the world's great actresses, that's proven by her track record, and it was very exciting to have her working with us for 10 weeks in a remote part of Australia."

Aaron Pedersen as Jay Swan.Credit:ABC

In terms of the story structure, Jowsey says the crime and its investigation represent a "Trojan horse model: we have a recognisable vehicle coming through the gate, but once we're into the story, we can get to issues and themes that we really want to explore.

"Hopefully, people go with us because they recognise the genre. On a simple level, two boys go missing from a farm, so there's an investigation. But then the mystery of the fate of the boys unpeels like an onion, bringing up other elements about the town and its history, and other crimes from the past. They're brought to the surface and they make the series a more complex exploration of Australian identity and history.

"We're hoping that the mystery will work, that the layers of the crime will work, that it will resonate and that the ideas about our past and Australian identity will percolate through, though not in a didactic way."

Pedersen jokes that he pestered Sen after the Mystery Road movie to make a second Jay Swan adventure, and was so persistent that Sen "had to take out a restraining order". Now he and many of those involved in the series are hoping the outback detective will have a small-screen life that begins, but doesn't necessarily end, in Patterson.